


I don't want to be a Mary Sue!

by Sarielgrace



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Dimension Travel, F/M, M/M, time travel (sort of)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-10-14
Packaged: 2018-04-11 14:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4439738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarielgrace/pseuds/Sarielgrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You know the stories where a fan is mysteriously transported to the Transformers Universe, magically saves the day, becomes the Allspark, and marries a Cybertronian to have little technorganic babies, right? Well, Aurora and Sarah Moran have something to say about that. Follow them as they go against the grain, trying to find out why they're here, and change the story's future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Is it a blessing or a curse?

**Author's Note:**

> Reposted from Fanfiction.Net under the same username.

May 25, 2013, John F. Kennedy International Airport

"The flight 7522 to LAX is now ready to board in Terminal 7," came a female voice over an intercom. "I can't believe we're really moving to California, Sarah!" squealed a grey eyed, brown haired woman to another woman with brown eyes and black hair. "Aura, we've decided a long time ago," complained the woman, hefting her carryon onto her shoulder. "Oh, Sarah, don't be a wet blanket," laughed Aura Moran, pulling her own carryon. "Now, goodbye temperamental New York, and hello LAX!" "Yeah, yeah, let's go before they leave without us," groaned the younger woman.

* * *

Six and a half long hours later

"Yay!" squealed Aura as she stepped into the hot California weather. "Oh my Primus, stop! I had to deal with you for six and a half pit spawned hours!" "Sarah! I know you love me!" pouted Aura. Both girls wheeled their luggage over to the chain of people waiting for a taxi, tapping her foot as she watched other people pass by. "Yay," she said sarcastically when the luggage was piled into the trunk of an SUV.

About an hour later

The two women pulled their luggage into their new home, leaving it in the living room as they left to get dinner.

* * *

Two weeks later

Aura and Sarah unpacked their stuff after it had arrived with a moving company. They also got their joint owned car, a blue 2008 Dodge Charger SRT8 with two black racing stripes their parents had gotten them when they graduated college. They were location hunting to open their own mechanic's garage, but hadn't left the house for anything other than new furniture and food.

Sarah glanced at her sister, troubling thoughts creeping into her brain. Aura was playing around with various Transformers memorabilia, the old classic figures their parents had in storage in the attic while they were in college. After an unfortunate drive, their parents crashed into a drunk driver in a minivan while they were coming back from a trip to Gateway mall. Basically, their parent's car, a 2004 Nissan Altima was involved in a three car pileup, and their mother was diagnosed with brain damage, while their father died on impact. After two weeks, the two sisters had to pull the plug on their mother, unwilling to see her suffer any longer.

Exactly after another month, Aura and Sarah Moran decided to sell their house and move to the West Coast to make a new life.

Sarah picked up her house keys, pocketing them and went over to her sister to take one of the toys, a Generation One Blitzwing. "Hey. Why don't we put them away and go out to eat dinner. My treat." Aura looked up, folding G1 Prowl into his vehicle mode. She shrugged, standing up, moving to take her wallet and book bag. "Yeah. We should go," she said softly, banishing negative thoughts.

* * *

On the way to a McDonald's, Aura's eyes were scanning the streets as her eyes laid on a car. Grey eyes were fixated on yellow and black paint, mouth agape as she stared at the car in front of her. "Aura? Hello, anyone home?" asked Sarah. Her arms were crossed, foot tapping as the girl watched her sister with annoyed brown eyes shielded behind dark sunglasses. "Oh. My. Primus," said the grey eyed girl dreamily, not paying any attention to her sister. "OH MY _PRIMUS_!" squeaked Aura, which caused the girl next to her to poke her roughly with a finger. "Aura! Snap out of it!" yelled the girl, and Aura finally turned to look at her sister. "Sarah! Why aren't you excited?! It's _Bumblebee_!" shrieked the girl, the decibel causing Sarah to cover her ears. "What?! Aura, are you insane?! Are you still thinking about that poor excuse of a Transformers movie?" asked Sarah, exasperated. She sighed at her sister's antics, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Come on, Sarah! They weren't that bad! The cars in there were _awesome_. A Topkick, the Peterbilt, the H2 Hummer and the Solstice! Not even you can deny that! Its fangirl heaven!" squealed Aura. "Stop squealing! People are looking at us weirdly! What if the owner decides to walk up here and sees you squealing over his or her car like a maniac! It's embarrassing!" groused Sarah. "Oh, don't worry, I'm sure California can deal with a couple more crazy people," said Aura, waving a hand in dismissal. "I mean, come on! A yellow 2007 Chevy Camaro with black racing stripes! You don't see that every day! Look, it even has the symbols~! It's totally fangirl worthy!"

"Yeah, and it's in the middle of the street in Los Angeles. Let's go, we're supposed to explore the house we bought!" Sarah tugged her sister by the arm, literally dragging the older girl away. "Sarah!" whined Aura. "Stop it~!" "If I do, will you walk away like a normal person?" asked Sarah sarcastically in a mock whisper. "I'm a grown woman, I do what I want," huffed Aura. "Yeah huh, and we got to move so we can get out of the place we're going to live in," sighed Sarah. "Now let's go, I want to eat some burgers." "Yay~!" cheered Aura.

* * *

As the two girls walked away, the yellow Camaro's engine turned on, and a blond haired boy appeared in the driver's seat. "Optimus? This is Bumblebee, listen, I heard a very odd conversation…" The boy tilted his head when he got a reply. "I'll get Sam and regroup, sir."

* * *

Meanwhile, at a McDonald's

Both girls were sitting inside a booth, Aura with a Big Mac with fries and a soda, and Sarah, with two double cheeseburgers with a side salad. "I don't know why you like the Movieverse," commented Sarah, taking a bite. "All the special effects were awesome, Sarah. I'm a pyromaniac. Those explosions were, well, explosive. And the characters! I liked Lennox and Epps a lot, and Sam was alright, I guess," replied Aura. "I think it isn't very true to all things Transformers, considering Transformers Prime came out. Bay wasn't not very original. An all-powerful Allspark? Give me a break, Aura. If Megatron wanted it so bad, why did it kill him?" asked Sarah, finishing her salad. Aura shrugged, and thought about it, balling her wrapper and tossing it on the tray. "I think it was because there was too much power. Like it overloaded his systems with raw energy," speculated Aura. "Why did they kill Jazz then?" asked Sarah, eyebrow raised. "I don't know. Jazz and Prowl are my OTP. I wonder if Prowl was killed because of the backlash of a broken bond."

Aura reached into her book bag, pulling out her laptop. She connected it to the internet, and after a while, she frowned. "Sarah? There's something wrong with Fanfiction.net." Aura looked up to her surprised sister. "I can't find the Transformers or Transformers/Beast Wars category anywhere."

"That's odd," replied Sarah. "It was open yesterday. I remember, I showed you that funny G1 story with Prowl brooding and everyone else thinking the world was ending." "Well, I don't see it anywhere. Even my bookmarks-they all say that the story I'm looking for doesn't exist. I even tried to look up the wiki page, but nothing showed up, other than electrical Transformers. Hey look! Huffington Post has a news label…Says that Mission City is still in repair after two months… but I think the date on it is wrong." Aura turned her computer around, eyebrows furrowed. Sarah stopped what she was doing and found the date on the website. "It says it's August 19. 2007. That's…" Sarah leaned back into the booth, deep in thought. "This whole thing sounds strange. Like we're in a fanfiction plot…Oh Primus. I know where this is going. We're going to be Mary Sues." Sarah's voice dipped into a deadpan.

"This cannot be happening," she groaned, forehead hitting the table with a painful thump. "Wait! So that means…" Aura trailed into thought, mind rewinding the last hour, then her mouth opened. "Oh. My. PRIMUS~!" The squeal directed the other customer's eyes to automatically swivel to the two girls. "Shh! Not that loud!" hissed Sarah. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod-Oh. My. God," rambled Aura. "Hush! We're going back to the house. Now," said Sarah, her voice dropping into a whisper. "I. Can't. Wait," clipped Aura. Sarah could feel that her sister was going to jump out of her seat like the fangirl she was. "Come on, before the military finds us or something." Once Sarah threw out the garbage, Aura snapped her laptop closed and they hightailed it out of there.

* * *

Once they were back at the house, Sarah locked the door and had started to pace back and forth. Aura laid idly on a sofa, fingers playing with a custom made symbol of the G1 Cybertronian Alliance, deep in thought. "Okay, Aura, so what are the facts?" asked Sarah. Aura hummed, then said, "Well, first off, the Transformers category is wiped off the face of the internet." "Yeah. The Huffington Post says that it's 2007 and the Mission City clean-up. Like the first movie's time." Realization dawned over Sarah's face. "Means that they came recently."

"But how did we get here anyway?" asked Aura, standing to walk over to her suitcase. She pulled out a Voyager class figurine of Optimus Prime, idly transforming it back and forth as she sat down again. "I dunno. Maybe it was the plane flight here. We both slept on the flight, right?" Sarah shrugged. "That guess is good as mine. Hopefully, that Bumblebee lookalike didn't contact Prime…"

The bell rang at that precise moment, causing both women to freeze. "Oh scrap," muttered Sarah. Aura hurried to shove the figurine into a desk drawer when a glint of metal caught her eye. Her breath hitched, and she palmed the little charm of the Matrix of Leadership into her hand. "Get the door," she breathed, slipping the charm into her pocket. Sarah nodded mutely, and she did.


	2. Meet the neighbors: Part one

"I am not selling my house," said Sarah the moment she opened the door. The two boys behind the door blinked in surprise. "Sarah? Who is it?" asked Aura, moving to skip towards the front door. "Oh. My. Pri-ack!" cried out Aura in surprise when Sarah jabbed her elbow into Aura's stomach. "

Sorry. She hasn't taken her medication yet," said Sarah shortly when one of the boys, one with brown hair and grey eyes gave a 'WTF Just happened?' face. "What?! I'm not on meds!" squawked the older girl, indignant. "That's what they all say. So, what are you here for boys?" asked Sarah, ever so unflappable. "Uh, my name is Sam Witwicky and this is my best friend, Brandon Paxton," said the brown haired boy while gesturing to his companion, another teenager with blond hair and brilliant blue eyes. "We live up the block, and our parents wanted to invite you to dinner."

Sarah scrutinized the boys, eyes taking in their profile. "Hmm. Maybe lat-." "Sarah! Why are you talking outside on the doorstep!" whined Aura, "It's rude!" Sarah sighed, stepping aside. "Why don't you come in?" she asked, and the teenagers entered the house.

The two boys glanced all over the foyer, over the shoe closet and closet, various boxes and other items cluttering up the room. "Sorry about the mess," apologised Sarah, glaring at her sister, "We didn't expect guests over so soon." "It's fine. You moved in two weeks ago, from New York haven't you? I remember seeing moving trucks with New York license plates," said Brandon.

"Yeah. Back in New York we lived in an apartment in Brooklyn. Man, it cost as much as this place. Brooklyn is one of the most expensive places in the U. S. of A," said Aura, "You're the house with the pretty lawn, aren't you?" Sam laughed nervously, reaching to rub the back of his neck in embarrassment. "You noticed that? Er, I mean yeah. I do. My dad takes care of the lawn. He's pretty proud of it."

Sarah nodded. "So how old are you exactly?" "Uh, I'm going to be seventeen," said Sam. "I'm eighteen," said Brandon. Aura gave an appraising nod, to which Sarah said, "Too young for us." "Uh, yeah, so when should we come over? Tomorrow at five?" asked Aura. Brandon gave a smile and said, "Sure. We're having a barbecue, and some of our parent's friends are coming over." "Sure, that will work," agreed Sarah. "Great! " said Sam, and the two left, Sarah moving to lock the door behind them.

Sarah moved and sat heavily on the sofa with a groan. Aura narrowed her eyes, then looked away, sulking. "I am not on medication," Aura pouted. "By how you're acting, it is the only explanation. And Aura... You need to be careful. We just moved in, and I don't want to relocate so soon. You can't just go sprouting the word Primus or anything about the Transformers. That'll just give us away. And we'll be Mary Sues. I DO NOT WANT TO BE ONE. This is _war_ , remember? It isn't all fun and games. We can _die,_ " emphasized Sarah. Aura was silent for a couple of moments, pulling out her charm of the Matrix. "I know that, Sarah," she started soberly. "But we can change things-for the better. And you're right. We're mortal. I haven't forgotten." "I didn't either. We can't reveal too much, even if we do reveal ourselves. It might destroy the universe," said Sarah, getting up to go to her room.

Aura sat in a silent room, contemplating what to do next. "We can save them. We just need time." She turned on the TV, moving to a news channel.

* * *

Sarah and Aura showed at the Witwicky house at exactly 5:02, Sarah holding a bottle of Jack Daniels. They were greeted by Judy Witwicky, who called her husband over to take it to the dining room.

"So both of you are from New York?" asked Ron after the two women took off their shoes and they all moved to the living room. "Yep! The good old East Coast! Sarah and I were born in Michigan, then our parents moved us when we were three to Brooklyn," prattled Aura. "So where are your parents if you live here?" asked Judy. Aura and Sarah glanced at each other, then Sarah said, "They...they're not with us anymore." Judy and Ron grew quiet, Judy's expression filled with pity. "You mean..." She trailed off. "Yeah. That was why we moved here, actually. We cut nearly all our ties and picked everything up," said Sarah. "Look, Mrs. Witwicky, but we don't need your pity," interrupted Aura. Sarah shot a glare at her sister before sighing. "Aura, why don't you find Sam and Brandon," she said. "Yeah. Maybe I should," agreed Aura. "The boys should be upstairs," supplied Judy. Aura nodded, and moved to go up the stairs.

Sarah waited before speaking again. "I'm sorry if Aura offended you in any way," she said quickly. "Oh, no, I understand," said Judy. "It must be hard, losing someone so young in life." "Yeah. She was closer to my father, while I was closer to our mother. Our parents were in a collision with a drunk driver. The driver was in a minivan while our parents were in a coupe. They also collided with another car, and killed two other passengers. That was about two and a half months ago." Sarah inhaled sharply, then breathed out again. "Aura...she wasn't the same anymore." The room grew quiet, and the depressing thought weighed on their minds. Sarah startled when the doorbell rang, nearly jumping out of her seat. "Who's that?" she asked, and Ron replied, "Oh, that's our guests, the Lennox family."

Ron stood up, walking over to the front door, and opened it.

* * *

Meanwhile, upstairs

Aura looked around as she reached the second floor, and she called out, "Sam? Brandon?" "Aura! We're in here!" replied Brandon immediately. Aura followed the voice, and found Sam on the computer and Brandon laying on a bed. "Hey! Sarah and your parents are downstairs, Sam," said Aura. "Hey. You came in a couple of minutes ago right?" asked Brandon, rolling off the bed. "Yeah. What are you-aww! Is that a Chihuahua? He's so cute!" cooed Aura, her attention fixated on the small dog. "What's his name? How old is he? Does he do tricks? Does he bark? Is he potty trained? How long did you have him? He's so adorable~!" squealed Aura, and while she was firing off questions, Sam clapped hands over his ears at the last sentence.

"Uh, his name is Mojo," said Sam when Aura went to pick Mojo up, whistling sharply to attract him. A second later, she had Mojo in her arms and two fingers under his chin, scratching him and cooing. "He can do tricks, though. Like roll over, bark, things like that," said Sam but Aura wasn't really listening as she lifted the dog to the air. "Awww~! You're a good doggy, yes you are! Yes you are~!"

The dog had started to lick Aura's face, saliva clinging to her face. "Hey! No slobbering!" she cried out in faux-indignation, putting the dog down and wiping her face with the back of her hand. "Sam, do you have a bathroom or something? Sarah hates it when I smell like a dog," asked Aura, and Sam replied, "Uh, yeah, down the hall." Aura left the room to clean up, washing the dogginess off her arms and face with soap. She took a moment to look around the room, duly noting the rather unremarkable bathroom. "Hey, Aura, we're going downstairs!" called out Brandon, and Aura replied, "Yeah, I'll come down!" She left the bathroom, letting some of the water dry off as she held the banister going down. The doorbell rang as she arrived at the bottom step, hearing Sarah ask who was coming over.

Sarah stared at the man at the door, before stepping aside to let him in. "Will!" said Ron, and William Lennox smiled before greeting Sam's parents. A woman holding a baby showed up, carrying a baby bag over her shoulder. "Oh! Hello!" chirped Aura as she skipped over to see the new people. "Aw~! She's so cute!" Aura's eyes were glued to the baby in Sarah Lennox's arms. "Hi! My name's Aura Moran!" she continued, and Aura looked up at the woman holding the baby. "What's her name? Who are you? Can I hold her?"

Sarah appeared to be taken aback at Aura's enthusiasm, but she answered Aura's questions. "Her name is Annabelle. I'm Sarah Lennox. Sure, you can hold her if you know how to." Aura's eyes started glittering with happiness as Mrs. Lennox carefully let her hold the baby. Aura immediately cooed at the baby, bouncing Annabelle in her arms. "It's nice to meet you. My sister's over there," she said, using a hand for a second to gesture at Sarah. "Her name's Sarah too! Isn't that awesome?"

A second later, Aura's attentions returned to the baby in her arms. "Sooo, how old is Annabelle?" she asked. "She's about ten months old now," replied Mrs. Lennox. "She looks like you," commented Aura, smiling when Annabelle did. "She'll be so pretty when she's older. Yes you will!" Aura played with the baby's hands, inspecting them as Mrs. Lennox put down her things. "I think I should give you back to your mom now," sighed Aura, and she held Annabelle out to her mother.

When the baby was safely situated in Mrs. Lennox's arms, Aura flitted to her sister, glomping her and clinging onto Sarah's back and making the taller girl stumble and nearly sprawl on the ground. "Aura! Get off! You're crushing me!" yelped Sarah. "No," said Aura stubbornly. "You're comfortable. Oh! Hello!" The older Moran finally noticed the male Lennox staring at her. "I'm Aurora Moran, but you can call me Aura. Who're you?" Aura let go of her sister, leading Sarah to sit cross legged on the floor to regain her strength. Aura held her hand out to the older man, and they shook hands, Aura trying to give a crushing grip, but failing. "William Lennox," said Will as he let go.

"Oh! Did you meet my sister?" asked Aura sweetly. "Sarah Moran," said Sarah, shaking Will's hand. "We live down the block." Aura then scrutinized Will's form, tilting her head as she asked, "Are you military? Rangers, perhaps?" Will stared at Aura with surprise. "Yes, I am, actually. How did you?" Aura blinked innocently at him, then said, "You have that vibe about you." She gave a blinding smile. "Will!" Aura vague heard Brandon call out from behind her. "How are you man?" asked the blond as he gave Will a man hug. "Aura and Sarah are the new additions to the neighbourhood. They moved here two weeks ago," said the blond boy.

"Hey Brandon," started Sarah, "Where are your parents?" "Oh, they're coming. Soon," replied Brandon nonchalantly. "So Ron, can we see your yard? I noticed how you kept your garden. I'm going to need some tips." asked Sarah. "For some reason, every time Aura tries planting, she kills the flower in two days." "Sarah!" whined Aura, "I don't do it on purpose! Plants just don't agree with me that's all!" "Is that so? Then pray tell, you killed a sunflower in two hours. Apparently you didn't inherit mom's planting skills," retorted Sarah "Why don't we get fake flowers, at least they can't die on me," growled Aura, eyebrows furrowed.

Ron gave Aura a worried glance. Apparently, the man was very attached to his plants. Oh, the irony.

Aura brightened up, flashing a smile. "Come on then. I don't like being in a house for too long," she said lightly. Sarah nodded, agreeing with her sister.

* * *

The whole party moved itself outside, seeing that it was getting a bit crowded, especially the maelstrom that was Aura's enthusiasm. That enthusiasm was reflected with her doing some parkour over the pathway. Still, there was no hide or hair of 'Brandon's' parents. About fifteen minutes after Ron started the grill and was cooing the food. Sarah Moran and Sarah Lennox were exchanging life stories while Aura was chatting with the two boys.

"So," started Sarah Lennox, "How old are you two?" The younger woman looked up from a cup of soda at the older woman. "Aura is twenty seven and I'm twenty six. Our parents had us one after another. I was supposed to be a boy, but yeah," Sarah shrugged, "They were happy anyways. Said that their girls didn't need a man to live." A wistful smile spread on her face. "Of course, Aura was showing up to be quite the protégé when she was a baby. She might fool ya for second, but she really isn't that flighty. If you hang around, you can see what type of person she is."

Over at Aura's corner, she was telling the two boys about the time she got the drop on Sarah and rearranged her whole room to the likeness of a Barbie house, complete with pink chairs, bed, vanity mirror and other objects. Needless to say, Sarah took great joy in disposing of the mass of pink furniture and in retaliation repainted Aura's room into a neon orange when Aura was in a college dorm. Seeing as Aura hated the colour orange, it was a whole two hours when Aura had enough and repainted the room a midnight blue and painted stars into the ceiling. It was cool, if Aura had to say so herself as she showed a picture on her phone. Aura had yet to convert her newer room to her old room's likeness, but she was planning to in the next week.

"So is that your car?" asked Aura, her gaze resting on a yellow car. "Yeah. I saw you got a Dodge Charger SRT8 in your driveway," said Sam, turning to follow Aura's gaze. "He's beautiful," she sighed dreamily, eyes starting to cloud over. "He?" asked Brandon, and Aura snorted with amusement. "Duh. I can't imagine him to be a girl, do you?" teased Aura, smiling widely, "Sarah and I are going to open up our own mechanic business in here. We started in New York about a year ago before we moved. We're still scouting the places, so we'll probably get a lease in the next week. Maybe you can be our first customers over in this location. Sarah says I treat all cars like my babies, but some you can't deny are total beauts." Sam nodded before replying, "My girlfriend knows her way around cars too. Maybe you can share with her a few pointers."

Aura's eyebrows hitched up in surprise. "You have a girlfriend? I thought you were…" The girl made an _obscene_ gesture with her hands and she thought Sam's eyes were going to pop out of his head. "Wh-what? N-n-no! We-we're n-not in a relationship!" blurted the boy with a huge blush. Aura mulled the new information in her head until she let out a, "Uh huh…Oh!" Realization dawned on Aura's face. "You're in the closet!"

When Brandon heard that speculation, he nearly fell over laughing. "WHAT?! We're not like that!" insisted Sam, until he saw that Aura was really going to fall over because of his reaction. "Bee, stop laughing!" Aura raised an eyebrow at the nickname. "Bee?" she asked. "Uh, we call him that because of his hair and favourite colours," said Sam. "Ooohhh. I get it," said Aura, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bumblebee."

"Huh?" asked Brandon, eyebrows furrowed at the phrase. "It's a figure of speech. Like, I've seen you move, and you're pretty graceful for a boy, but I get ya got a mean kick," explained Aura. "Oh," said the boy shortly. "Yes. Oh," agreed Aura. "Oh, hey, look, my dad and his friends are here," said Brandon, and Aura looked over to see a red flamed Peterbilt 379, a black GMC TopKick and an H2 Hummer pull up to the house, and her jaw dropped. "Hmm…I wonder what they feel about explosives," she wondered out loud.

All other thoughts vanished when the drivers exited their respected vehicles.


	3. Meet the neighbors: Part two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting Brandon's father and friends...oh, what joy, right? Wrong.  
> Now it's under Sarah's power to reign in Aura's enthusiasm...

The man that exited the Peterbilt was summed up in Aura's head with one word. Tall. More like he was a giant. He had inky blue midnight hair, vibrant blue eyes, and stood at the height of an impressive six foot five.

Aura's jaw dropped as she took in the man, and she glanced over to see the other drivers of the two vehicles. One had sandy brown/blonde hair with blue eyes, and another was basically a walking muscle bag. They were both an average height for men, the sandy brown haired one about five foot nine and the other about five foot eleven.

The walking bag of muscle had dark black hair and blue eyes with rather unremarkable features, baring a scar running down his right eye. He seemed like he was made of concrete while the Hummer driver was slightly softer. The tallest man was probably about in his thirties while the other two seemed to be in their mid-forties to early fifties.

"So who are they?" she asked, taking in the newcomers. "The one who came out of the semi is my dad. His name's Orion Paxton, but his buddies call him Optimus. The dude who came out of the Top Kick is Aaron Hayden, codenamed Ironhide, my dad's adopted brother. The last one is Russell Hatchet, but we call him Ratchet. They're all in the army in the same squadron. Optimus is the leader, Ironhide is the Weapons Expert and Ratchet's the CMO," explained Brandon.

"Maybe I should introduce myself," commented Aura with an odd glint in her eye. She stood up, skipping to the approaching three men and stopping them in the middle of the pathway. "Hi~!" she chirped, getting even closer and from the corner of her eye, saw her sister walk over with a resigned look on her face. "So you're Brandon's dad? It's nice to meet ya! He's really nice, ya know?" shot off Aura, and Sarah had to physically pull the older girl back to prevent her from smothering the older man's personal space.

"Aura! Hold your engines! Personal space, remember!" reminded Sarah, eyes flickering up to the tallest man's amused/confused face. "Now, apologise to the nice man you just accosted a few seconds ago before you forget," admonished Sarah.

An apologetic expression moved onto Aura's face and she looked up imploringly at the older man with puppy eyes. "I'm so sorry!" she burst out, and appeared to be nearly in tears, "I didn't mean ta make ya feel uncomfortable Mr. Paxton, really! Can ya forgive meh?!"

Aura was now wailing loudly, causing everyone else to stare at her. The man named as Russell Hatchet snorted at the drama. Aura cut off, turning to her sister, and commented, "Whaddya think? Too much personal internal anguish?" Sarah sighed, nodding, "Bit too much, Aura." Aura turned around to see amused blue eyes looking down at them.

"I'm Sarah Moran. Sorry about that," apologized Sarah, jerking her thumb to point at her sister. "This knucklehead is my older sister Aura. If you haven't guessed already, our mom dropped her on the head as a baby. Multiple times." "She lies!" insisted Aura, "Mom never dropped me! Hell, she wouldn't even put me down!" Aura then turned to see the line of vehicles on the street, stars in her eyes. "I gotta say, you do entrances with style."

"Thank you, Miss Moran," said Mr. Paxton. Aura gave a small laugh, waving her hand erratically as she insisted, "Don't mention it! You can call me Aura though, everyone does. Your son's a good kid, I have to say. When I was his age, I was a rebel! Guess you can see that from a mile away."

Sarah turned to the other two men, smiling politely. "I do apologize for my sister's…antics. I assure you I am in no way like her."

"WHAT?!" demanded Aura, pointing at her older sister with a finger. "You lie! You like your pranks as much as I do mine!"

"Oh god, another pair of pranking siblings," groaned Russell. "So, Brandon didn't say much, but who are you anyway?" asked Aura, eyes wide and curious. "He just said that y'all in the military, but not really what you do."

"That's classified, I'm afraid," said Orion. "The American government is keeping our division heavily under wraps." Aura gave a disappointed pout, her eyes widening even further. "Brandon says that everybody else calls ya Optimus. Why?" her tone was innocently deceptive.

"It was the name I was given when I joined," said Orion easily. "Did ya know, that in Latin, it translates to 'one of the best'. Best of what?" asked Aura, but Sarah laid a hand on the older girl's shoulder. "I think you should stop with your interrogation, shall we? I think I heard Ron that the food was almost ready," she said. Aura's head swiveled around to peer at Ron flipping the last of the burgers, and she brightened up immediately out of her pout.

"Okay! It's been nice talkin' to ya OP, but that burger has my name on it!" Aura chirped, and she happily skipped away. "OP?" asked Russell, seemingly casual. "It's Mr. Paxton's initials. Like she said, we're ready to eat," answered Sarah mildly, and she followed after her sister.

* * *

As the younger Moran girl walked away, Russell turned to Orion. "There's something wrong with that Aura femme," he said to the commander. "Scans show that since talking to us, her adrenaline levels shot up tremendously." "She has shown no signs of hostility, Ratchet. It would be wise if Bumblebee monitors the two girls for now, and see if they slip up any information," said the Supreme Commander of the Autobots. "Guess you're right, Prime," agreed Ironhide, nodding. "We should try out these holoforms, shall we?" asked Ratchet lightly, and they continued up the stone path.

* * *

Back with Aura

By now, Aura had taken a whole plate with a hamburger with a couple of chicken wings and some pieces of grilled corn. She sat with Brandon and Sam, commenting every now and then the different life between living in the city and the suburbs.

* * *

Sarah, on the other hand, started talking to Will and Sarah about their married life and inquiring about Annabelle's feeding habits and sleep cycle. The younger girl had acquired some fruit salad Judy had made and a double cheeseburger with pickles, along with more Pepsi. "So what made you come to California of all places?" asked Will, looking up from his plate. "Well, even though we've been living in Brooklyn for most of our lives, Aura hates shovelling snow and the freezing temperatures. In her mind, boiling is better than freezing to death," shrugged Sarah, finishing the salad. "She also wanted it to be sunnier, and the rent of our Apartment per year was nearly as much as the price of the house we're in. It's a two story, three bedroom house with an artist's studio that's actually detached from the house itself. It's very…homely, that's for sure." "Wow. That's quite the change," said Will, and both Sarahs nodded in agreement.

The rest of the day seemed to fade away after eating.

* * *

The Morans left the Witwicky house around 8: 30 PM, with the excuse of location hunting the next day. Both sisters decided to sleep early to continue with the hiding of their Transformers memorabilia around the house.


	4. Dreams aren't real...are they?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be angst up ahead, so sit tight.

Basement, Moran House

"Hey, Sarah, do you think we should put this in the Vault?" asked Aura, holding up a Soundwave figurine. Sarah looked over to her sister, pondering. "Yes," she said shortly. "We can't let the Autobots think we're Decepticon spies, since we're not." "I just hate that we're in the movie universe," grumbled Aura. "If it was Prime!verse, Animated or in the Unicron Trilogy, I'd be happy to be on the Decepticon side."

"You shouldn't say that. They might separate us if they think you're a threat," said Sarah seriously. "You said yourself that we need to exercise caution. I already melted the Decepticon necklaces we had into a small block." Aura's head snapped to her sister immediately. "What?! Do you know how expensive those were?!" her voice cracked for a second, and she continued, "Uncle Marcus gave them to me, remember?" "But we can't be seen as Decepticon sympathizers! They'll lock us up faster than you can say Autobot," reminded Sarah. Aura thumped a wall angrily with the side of her hand.

"Primus! Sometimes I wish we never came here! Stayed back in New York, never got caught up in this!" burst Aura. "Every time the door rings, I always check the front yard to make sure there were no mysterious black SUVs parked on the curb! My paranoia is going off the charts! It's driving me crazy!"

"Bit too late for that, sister," said Sarah, "I know how you feel. The situation has been making me paranoid as well." "I…I'm sorry, Sarah…I-I just, I can't take it anymore! First Uncle Marcus went to Afghanistan, then mom and dad are gone, and now this! It's like bad things are happening to us over and over again? Why are we here!?" cried Aura, breaking down into tears, legs collapsing and falling onto the floor.

Sarah walked over to her sister, bending down and wrapping her arms around the older girl as she turned to cry into Sarah's shoulder. The black haired girl rubbed Aura's shoulder soothingly with a hand. "I know, Aura," she whispered, as the older girl's walls collapsed, "It'll be better. I promise." Sarah planted a kiss over Aura's forehead as the girl cried herself to sleep.

The younger girl lifted her sister up bridal style and went to the second floor, tucking Aura into bed in her room. Sarah took a look over Aura's picture of their family on her desk, all four of them with wide smiles on their faces during Aura's college graduation. She turned to turn off the light and left the room, door shutting with a soft _click_.

(A/N: That was NOT what I was expecting to happen until I already finished…Yeah, Aura having a meltdown is not good…)

* * *

Dream sequence

Warmth. Light. Aura's eyes opened, sleepy grey eyes searching for the source of light. "S-Sarah? Where are you?" " **Your sister is not here** ," came a stranger's voice, and it felt like there was surround sound. "Who's there?" asked Aura, mind snapping to attention. " **I've been watching you, Aurora Senna Moran. Since the conception of your birth, to the present of now, and in the future yet to happen."**

Aura found herself in a grassy field, trying to find the speaker. "Why are you hiding? How am I supposed to talk to you if I can't even see ya?" " **You will realize who I am in time, child. There is a more pressing matter at hand**." "Where is this place? I don't recognize it," asked Aura.

" **This, child, is your mind. A place where you can bend =to your whims. Heed my advice, child; reality is not what it seems. You wanted answers to why you are in this world. I will give them to you,** " said the voice kindly. "Why are we here?" asked Aura.

" **I have brought you and your sister into this world for a purpose.** " "I can sort of see that. Why don't you answer me instead of talking in circles?" Aura crossed her arms moodily. " **Very well then, if you wish. I brought you and your sister into this world…to bring hope.** " Aura frowned, eyebrows furrowed. "Hope? That word isn't compatible with me or Sarah. You must be joking."

" **I do not make jokes, Aurora. I do not do things without reason. I have noticed that I made…mistakes. Mistakes that needs to be corrected. My children are fighting against one another in endless conflict. The Allspark is dispersed, and it does not seem that it is possible to refill the universe with Cybertronian life during an all-encompassing war. It is not the time to raise sparklings. To achieve this end, the war has to stop."**

"But I'm just human, still barely in young adulthood," said Aura quietly. "I haven't seen this world to the fullest. Why us? Why not some other sod that has lived his or her life? WHY?!" Aura screamed into nothingness. Then, a being solidified right before her eyes. It appeared to be a Cybertronian the size of a human, completely covered in golden armour. Aura gasped, taking a step back as she muttered, "Holy Primus." The being inclined his helm and said, " **Yes. I am Primus, creator of the Transformers.** " "I was only kidding when I said that," said Aura dumbly as she stared at the golden mech.

"Wait...so what do you mean you want us to give hope?" she asked, confusion overwriting her previous anger. " **The Cybertronian race is losing faith. The Autobots, The Decepticons, the few Neutrals that still exist are weary. Even Optimus Prime, my Chosen, is losing faith in me. I have vowed to never interfere with my children's war…but you can. Both of you can do it of your free will. I will not force you to comply,** " said Primus. "And what happens if I say no?" asked Aura. "What if I refuse?"

" **If you do say no, then tomorrow morning, Samuel James Witwicky, Judy Witwicky, Ronald Witwicky, Mikaela Banes, Sarah Lennox, William Lennox, Annabelle Lennox, Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumblebee and numerous other Cybertronians and humans will cease to exist in real life."** Primus' tone was laden with disappointment.

It tugged at Aura's heartstrings inside, and she decided to think it over. She and Sarah knew what was going to happen in the future. She knew that the Cybertronians were killing each other off into extinction, and even the righteous was losing faith in their sides. It must've been killing Primus inside, watching his descendants destroy each other, spilling energon every chance they got. Aura felt sympathy for the god, knowing that he could not do anything about it. That was the deal with giving free will. You couldn't force someone, or you take away all choices, and create zombies instead. Her parents had always wanted her to do the right thing…what if the right thing was to end a war? What if her purpose was to end a bloody conflict that had been traversing the stars for the last couple of million years?

"I'll…I'll do it," agreed Aura quietly. "As long as you promise Sarah's safety. Can't you?" **"Your sister has also agreed to this task. I can only assure you that she will survive,"** replied Primus. "Surviving is not the same as living," said Aura. "But I bet I can take it. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings, right?"

" **Thank you, Aurora Senna Moran. I will speak to you again at a later time** ," said the God, and Aura was blinded by white, her mindscape quickly losing its definitions.

End Dream

* * *

Aura's upper body jerked up from her bed, hands planted on her bed as she gasped. She stayed like that for a moment, glancing over to her bedside clock's red numbers and letters of 3:58 pm, then let herself fall back, turning over a second later. She could think about it tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning

Aura woke up to Sarah frying scrambled eggs in the kitchen, flipping them over, then sliding it onto a waiting plate. "Morning, Sarah," greeted Aura, sliding into a chair. "Morning to you to, Aura," said Sarah, reaching for another egg to cook it sunny side up. Aura went to get a cup of orange juice, moving to toast some bread and placing it on the table. "So…how was last night?" asked Aura. "A good night as any. I suspect Primus answered your questions?" asked Sarah, turning to slip the eggs onto the bread as she placed the pan into the sink. "He did," said Aura curtly. "Seriously, hope? What's up with that?" The younger girl started to cut her scrambled eggs, thinking.

"You remember what an aurora is, correct?" asked Sarah. "Huh? Oh, yeah. The dawn," replied Aura. "Then perhaps, it means that you will bring a new dawn to this world," said Sarah, looking up to Aura after taking a bite. ""Do you really think we can bring hope to an endless war?" asked Aura. "Primus said he saw our future. It means we have a chance," said Sarah. "But what if he's wrong? The future isn't set in stone, Sarah," worried Aura. "The future never is. Who can tell what will happen?" reminded Sarah. "We can make this future better. In the Rise of the Fallen, Sam never gave up hope, right? Why should we now? We know what will happen in the future. Not everyone has to die."

"We might as well explode the world at this rate," grumbled Aura. "Don't say that. I'm supposed to be the pessimist here, not you," smiled Sarah with all her teeth. "Don't smile at me like that, you're creeping me out, Prowl." "Bluestreak! I don't have a stick up my aft!" teased Sarah. "And I don't ramble excessively. Oh wait! I do!" retorted Aura in return.

Sarah laughed, and cleared the table. "Come on. We're still scoping for a location, remember? We still have yet to receive our supplies," she said, washing the pan and dishes with dish soap. "We also need to take inventory," said Aura. "And Sarah…thanks. For last night." Sarah hummed, thinking for a moment, then said, "Don't mention it. I understand. We're sisters, remember? Till the end." "Yeah. Till the end," agreed Aura. "Prowl and Bluestreak, two people against the rest of the world," said Sarah. "I think you killed the moment, Prowl," deadpanning Aura. "It is my gift, Bluestreak. As talking is yours," countered Sarah.

Aura stuck her tongue at the younger girl childishly. "Well, if you're Prowl, you're going to need rules to go with it." "Fine," agreed Sarah. "Rule one: no mentioning anything pertaining to the Transformers unless they reveal themselves. Rule two: No giving hints. We don't need that. Rule three: if we see any Decepticons, leave the area immediately or try to find the Autobots. We cannot risk capture. Rule four: never say the names of any Cybertronian outside of these walls. We will hold small meetings in the Vault. Speaking of which, we need to invest in soundproof walls and EMP generators in case there's any bugs. Rule five: do not tell them about our task. I think that's enough, don't you?" asked Sarah. Aura nodded. "Yeah. Let's go make an EMP generator~!" she yelled excitedly, running to get her shoes. "Wait! Don't forget about the garage!" yelled Sarah, running after her sister.

* * *

Two weeks later

Aura and Sarah got their mechanic's garage finally scoped out and ready to go five days ago, already gaining three customers within that time. Aura was trying to finish up Mr. Morrison's maintenance check before she asked, "Hey, Sarah, when do you think we'll see Primus again?" "Shhh! Not in here, Aura!" scolded Sarah, whipping around to face her sister. "Anywhere in this world can be bugged! It's not safe, even in our own garage." Sarah then went to check the storage room for inventory listing.

Not even a few minutes later, a girl showed up with a faded pink Harley-Davison. "Yes? May I help you?" asked Aura, attentive as ever. "Yes, I need an oil change and maintenance check," said the girl politely, a small smile gracing her lips. "Sure. Can I have your name?" asked Aura, scrutinizing the motorcycle. "Mikaela Banes," said the girl, and Aura's eyebrows shot up. "Oh! You're Sam's girlfriend! You're real!" Aura said, straightening. "Yeah, I am. I heard that you made it sound like Sam swung for the other team," commented Mikaela, and Aura gave an embarrassed laugh. "Sorry about that. I found an opening jab and I did it, I guess. Didn't mean anything of it," said the older female. "It's alright. I think Sam forgave you by now," said Mikaela.

Sarah left the backroom when she noticed Mikaela's presence. "Customer, Aura?" she asked, and Aura whirled around. "Oh, hey Sarah! Didn't notice you come back in. This is Sam's girlfriend. She needs her oil changed and a maintenance check," said Aura as Sarah came closer. "Sarah Moran," said the younger Moran, holding out a hand which Mikaela took for a few seconds. "Mikaela Banes," said Mikaela, smiling.

"Hm. It also looks like you also need a new paintjob," said Sarah, turning to look at the two wheeler. "How much will you charge for it?" asked Mikaela, following Sarah's gaze. The younger Moran walked around, gazing at the motorcycle while deep in thought. "Hmm…well, seeing as you're still in the 'first 10 customers' range, I'll only charge you $180," she said. "Aura will do it. Because we're friends."

"It's really because, I'm a better detailer than Sarah," explained Aura in a stage whisper, "I'll make her look really good." "Her?" asked Mikaela. "Well, she ain't a boy, now is she?" asked Aura. "How many miles since last maintenance? "10,000. About five months ago," replied Mikaela. "We'll call when we're done," said Sarah. "If you could log your name here…"

Aura tuned out her sister, taking a closer look at the Harley-Davison. "It looks like you ran into a mountain and fell into a couple of puddles...wait, make that the ocean," she whispered. "Don't worry, I'll make ya look brand new!" She smiled, and turned to see Mikaela leave. "We should finish up Mr. Morison's maintenance first," said Sarah, and Aura nodded, picking up a wrench.


	5. Work, work, and more work

It took both girls about an hour to finish Mr. Morrison's car, and Sarah called the owner so he could pay and pick up the vehicle.

About an hour later, Aura was humming to herself as she cleaned the grime off the motorcycle, her rag changing from a yellow cloth to a muddy brown. Already, the bucket full of cleaning solution turned from a foamy white to a murky brown. She carefully attended to every available crevice on the wheels, making sure to flush any visible particles of dirt out. Sarah came to change the bucket every so often, and placed another bucket full of warmed water next to Aura. The older girl went to fix a modified water flosser to the sink after testing the water to make sure it wouldn't be too cold to handle. She hated using cold water with her hands. She walked back to the motorcycle and opened the hose valve to pick at little pieces of mud inside what she assumed to be the transformation seams. The motorcycle, which she could safely assume was Arcee, seemed to melt into her spokes.

The dirty water gravitated to the drain in the ground, making the white concrete look dirtier. When Aura finished with the two wheels, she dumped the water out, moving to grab a small bristle toothbrush usually used for getting in between teeth.

Aura used it to fully clean the inside, and when she was done, used more water to clean the crud left over.

Then, Sarah went to change the oil and replacing it with new fluid and filter. Aura walked off to wash her hands, squinting at the clock overhead. 2:39 PM. "It took nearly an hour and a half?!" she screeched with disbelief, and Sarah sighed. "Yeah it did. Mikaela must've done a number to her if it took you that long. Go eat lunch," said the younger girl as Aura dried her hands and went off to change her clothes to something a bit more presentable. It'd take a couple more hours for Sarah to finish, then Aura would take the time to start detailing.

Aura went out to find a deli to get a ham sandwich, and came back, watching Sarah as she worked. When she finished eating, the older girl changed into her previous work clothing, handing tools to Sarah when she called for them, including wrenches, dent pullers and other miscellaneous objects.

* * *

By time the younger girl finished maintenance, it was well into seven pm. Sarah sighed, straightening and cracking her spine to get the stiffness out.

"Wow," said Aura, moving to help Sarah stand up. "We'll wait on detailing. For tomorrow," said Sarah, moving to approach the sink to clean off. "Seems like a big job for one vehicle," commented Aura. "It looks like Mikaela put her through a grinder, slapped her back together, and then dropped her in the biggest mud pile in existence! Look, even the welding is uneven!" "I'm sure she'll have it replaced; I hope," said Sarah. "Anyway, I'm hungry, you're probably hungry, so let's get dinner." Aura shrugged, and changed her clothes quickly, then picked up her car keys. "Lock up, Sarah," said the elder, and left the garage. Sarah sighed, looking over the lone vehicle, then mumbled, "Night. See you in the morning." A large yawn escaped her mouth as she made sure everything was locked and accounted for before she left.

* * *

Forty minutes later

After getting dinner, Aura was finishing three scoops of Snickers ice cream in a waffle cone, while Sarah settled for a chocolate and cookies n' cream ice-cream in a medium cup from a Baskin Robins they had passed. "Mmm…I love Snickers," sighed Aura happily while Sarah just grunted in agreement. "It's getting dark. Do ya wanna look at the stars tonight?" asked Aura. "If we get home fast enough," said Sarah. "Yay!" cheered Aura, and walked faster. She waved cheerily at Ron when they passed the Witwicky's home, eliciting a returned wave. Aura skipped down the block, Sarah now running after her to keep up.

Another ten minutes passed till they both finished their desserts, and Aura went to take a shower, Sarah going in right after. When they were in their bed clothes, Aura went to get some pillows, and Sarah went to get towels to lay on the grass.

Both of them stared up at the sky, eyes searching for the stars. "Hey look! I can see Orion the Hunter!" pointed out Aura, hand raising into the air to trace the shape of the constellation. "I see…the big dipper," said Sarah, pointing. Aura gave a small laugh, and said, "Course you can see it, silly. It's one of the more obvious constellations. Oh, wait, I can see Mars! Mars is bright tonight." Sarah snorted at the reference, rolling her eyes. She stretched, with some satisfying cracks sounding, and planted her hands under her head.

"I wish…I wish we could see the stars one day," said Aura quietly. "Huh?" Sarah twisted up to stare at her sister with surprised eyes. "Right now?" Sarah asked, and Aura chuckled. "No. Not as of yet. We got a whole life ahead of us, right? Might as well travel," said the older girl.

"We're only human, Aura. Such an infinitesimal speck in the vast emptiness of space. I know we were brought here for a reason, but we can only do so much," said Sarah, returning her gaze to the night sky. "There are literally hundreds of fangirls and fanboys that would kill to be in this world, remember? They don't think about the dangers this world has. They think they'll just crash into this world, and magically fix everything. They think they are invincible…but they are not. Everyone has their hopes and dreams, Aura. This was neither your or my dream, to be in this place. Coming here…we never wished for it."

Aura was quiet, listening to her sister's heavy words. "I know," Aura said. "We can die at any time. Cause we're just normal." Sarah grunted. "We were never normal." "Nope," Aura agreed.

* * *

One hour later

The girls went back inside, opting to leave the towels out for the night. They went to the Vault, which was fitted with soundproof padding, and Sarah entered the code for the door to open. Since their discovery of being in the Transformers world, they replaced the wooden door with a metal door and a keypad to out to keep out pesky insects and whatnot, and make sure no one could break in.

Aura dragged two chairs into the center of the room, facing them towards each other. "So…" drawls out the older girl as Sarah sat in one of the chairs. "Whaddya want to talk to meh abou'?" said Aura as Sarah gave a groan. "You're channeling Jazz aren't you," deadpanned the younger girl. Aura just flashed her sister a smile, walking to rummage around in a crate to pull out a pair of blue tinted sunglasses, to which she slipped on. "Ah dunno wha' ya talk'n bout, Prowler."

Sarah fixed Aura with a stare. "No. We are _not_ doing this!" Aura pouted, then slipped the glasses off. "Party pooper," grumbled the older girl, moving to fling the sunglasses behind her back into the open crate. "Well, then what is it?"

"You know who Mikaela brought in, correct?" asked Sarah, cutting to the point. Aura nodded in affirmative, and replied, "Yup. Arcee. A femme. I only know that in canon, Elita-One is with Prime and Chromia is with Ironhide. So she's single~!"

"Yes, yes I know," snapped Sarah, and Aura recoiled at the sharp response. "…Sorry. I'm just tired," sighed Sarah, and Aura relaxed. "So, she's probably spyin' on us, right?" asked Aura worriedly. "We're going to be gridlocked! I just know it!" shouted the girl, paranoia rising. "Hey, hey, get a grip, Aura," said Sarah, grabbing her sister's hands, "Breathe in with me. In…out. In…and out. Focus your mind. I'm here. I'm not letting you go, you hear me?"

Minutes passed as Aura calmed down again, her panicked gasps slowing into even breaths. "I…I'm okay," murmured Aura lowly, "I'm okay…right?" "Yes. Yes you are. Aura, I know these past few months have been harsh, but you have to stick with me, alright?" asked Sarah. Aura nodded furiously, ready to agree with her sister.

"Sorry," said Aura after a moment of silence. "Don't mention it. So, we have to be extra careful around the garage. Who knows what devices Arcee is planting while we're gone," said Sarah. "Don't say that," demanded Aura immediately, not willing to set off another panic attack in a span of five minutes.

"Right, right, fine," said Sarah. Aura sighed, and stood up, moving towards the open crate. "It's a shame we have to hide everything," said the older girl, picking up a Transformers: Prime Ratchet, looking at it for a few seconds, then putting him down again and closing the box. "Shame we have it all in the basement," said Sarah, also getting up and rooting though the stuff. A smile emerged on her face as she held up a figure of Bayverse Jazz in his root mode, waving it in front of Aura's face. "Look! This was the first Bayverse figure we ever got," said the younger, older memories resurfacing. "Yeah," said Aura, reminiscing. "Just don't forget what we're doing. We can save him too, you know. I don't think he was supposed to die," mused Sarah. "

"Perhaps, perhaps not. But I wanna keep my OTP alive, damn it," said Aura, waving a hand in dismissal. "Primus did say he will contact us later." "Yes, he did. Come on, we have to rest. You especially," said Sarah. Aura nodded in agreement, yawning. "Hmmm…night Sarah," she said, leaving the room and going up the stars to brush her teeth and go to bed. Sarah stood there for another second, then turned off the lights, retiring to her own room.

* * *

Next day, 9: 30 am

"GOOD MORNING!" shouted Aura as she entered the open garage. Sarah woke up nearly half an hour earlier than Aura, promptly leaving the house at 9:00 and left a note with breakfast saying, "You better get your aft to the garage or we're not going to have enough time at the shooting range." Aura ate and was out the door in the span of five minutes. Leading to now.

Sarah winced at the loud voice and said, "I think I need my ears, thank you very much. Get your kit and start working." Aura gave a sloppy salute and chirped, "Yes sir~!" "Don't call me 'sir' Aura!" "...No," said Aura, shaking her head as she picked up her paint stripper, "You're always gonna be sir ta meh!" "I'll mix the paint," said Sarah, already knowing the argument was a lost cause. She looked over the license plate, noting the bold numbers and letters, 4RC33 1. "I wonder if Mikaela gave her a name," mused Aura loudly as she worked. "Looks like the license plate is one of the custom ones. 4RC33 space 1. If you substitute the numbers for letters before the space, you get A-R-C-E-E. Let's call her Arcee," said Sarah. "Arcee. I like it!" said Aura. "Sounds feminine to me."

"Aura, where's the hot pink?" asked Sarah, entering the storage room. "We are _not_ painting her hot pink. That's sacrilege! Mikaela doesn't even seem to be the type to be a girly girl! Budge over, I'm getting it," said Aura, wiping her hands.

* * *

Two hours later

Aura had directed Sarah to mix magenta with some white, lightening the colors in the tray. She was coating the area of armor with primer when Sarah brought her a cup of iced coffee with cream and three sugars. "Thanks," muttered Aura, moving to work on another piece of plating.

* * *

Three hours later

Aura was done with more than half of the total plating, and was working on a curving design using a soft gold metallic paint. "Looks good," commented Sarah, eyes picking at the details. "I'm not done yet," said Aura. "Tell me when you're done, alright? I'm going to make a sandwich," said Sarah, moving into an adjoining room and pulling things out a mini-fridge. "Hmm, yeah, just make a chocolate whey shake for me," mumbled Aura, squinting. "Hey-look at this," she said, tracing a fading Autobot symbol on the side. "Huh? What is it?" asked Sarah, poking her head out of the other room. She walked over to her sister, searching for the symbol. "What do we do with it? Paint it over?" asked Aura. "No. Draw it, make a stencil, repaint it," said Sarah. Aura shrugged, "Alright. Gimme a ruler." Sarah nodded, searching for the implement.

* * *

One hour later

Aura was putting the finishing touches on the metal plating, coating the rest in primer. She stood up, cramped from her position on the stool she was sitting on, and stretched, hearing her spine pop. "Done?" asked Sarah, looking over Aura's work. "Yeah," said the older girl, removing her breathing mask. "Let's call Mikaela after she dries. Arcee's beautiful!" Aura grinned at her sister. "She still isn't your baby though," said Sarah, and Aura pouted. "I wanna motorcycle!" "No, Aura. Dad would be rolling in his grave of I let you get on one," sighed Sarah as she picked up her phone to call Mikaela. "Hey. Mikaela? We're done. Is this a good time? Really? Great! …Sam's picking her up? ...Yeah, just give him the address...okay. See you sooner or later." Sarah ended the call, turning to Aura. "Mikaela says she's busy, so Sam's picking Arcee up," Aura shrugged, drinking her whey shake. "I think she'll knock their socks off," said Aura proudly. "Mm, sure," said Sarah, deep in thought.

* * *

It didn't take more than fifteen minutes for Sam to show up. The teenager let out an appreciative whistle when he saw the motorcycle's new paint job. "Wow," said the boy, and Aura puffed up with pride. "She looks brand new," Sam marveled after he paid Sarah. "Yep! Man, when I first saw her, it looked like she crashed into a ditch multiple times! Teenagers these days," said Aura with a mock sigh. "Back in my day, I'd be happy with four wheels and an engine."

Sam's mouth promptly dropped open. Aura raised an eyebrow. "What? Sarah and my first car was a 1980 Nissan Fairlady 280Z-T. We only got the Charger a month ago." 'Well,' Aura mused in her head, 'Technically it was five years ago, but since it was 2007 and not 2013, they had to knock off those years. It wasn't like they were going to tell him anyways, right?'

Aura shrugged to herself, then said, "I dunno what's up with ya, Witwicky." She patted Arcee on the seat, murmuring to herself in a low voice. "So, Sammy? Are ya gunna ride her?" asked Aura after she straightened up. "That sounds incredibly dirty," said Sarah from her position at the cash register. "I didn't mean it like that!" squeaked Aura, as a blush rose on her cheeks. Sam was in a similar state of discomfort at the blunt innuendo, and nodded, "Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah…erm, see you!" The boy promptly hopped onto the motorcycle, keyed the engine, and took off.

"How sad," said Aura woefully, "Didn't even get his cleaning cloth." The girl pouted as Sarah snorted. "Come on," said the younger girl, grabbing the car keys. "I'm closing up early. We're going to the shooting range."

"Yay!" cheered Aura as she locked the garage, and followed Sarah to their car.


	6. Interlude 1: You want me to do what!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dreams again...

Interlude: September 22, 2007

Moran Residence

Grey eyes met brown ones as Aura started a staring contest, and it was evident that the older girl was losing. Badly. She squinted with exertion, the seconds passing, but Sarah just coolly stared back. Sarah was bored enough that she was willing to humor her sister, and smirked when Aura gave a whine, defeated, "Argh! Why can't I ever win this! Not once!"

"You fail to concentrate," said Sarah, rolling her eyes, and Aura flopped back onto the sofa with a groan, hair falling into her eyes. She growled, regretting cutting her shoulder length hair into a bob cut. "Why did I cut my hair again?" she whined loudly, but Sarah just shrugged, hiding her face behind the California Times. "Because you were being an idiot again? I dunno," she said, moving the paper closer to her face.

"Did you get the new caribana wax? We're running low on it," asked Aura, blowing her bangs out of her vision. "Got another about three days ago. We need to change the oil in the Charger soon. Why are you so worried?" "I'm not. Just thought I'd let you know."

"We haven't seen Sam in a while, have we? Maybe we should visit," suggested Sarah. "Nah. Don't get me wrong, but I think that kid's annoying," said Aura.

"Why? Doesn't he go 'No no no no no no no no no!'" every movie? I thought it was amusing," said the younger sister, skimming the articles for useful information.

Aura closed her eyes, thinking over the events in the movies. She grimaced at the memory of seeing Ironhide be killed by the traitorous Prime, and gritted her teeth when she remembered how Mearing threatened the Autobots.

"I don't think we should interfere, for now," Sarah said about ten minutes later, closing the newspaper and tossing it onto the coffee table, getting up from the arm chair when she glanced at the clock. It was nearly eleven, and she went to the kitchen to make some coffee.

"I'm going to watch the 1986 movie," piped up Aura from the living room as she rolled off the sofa, and got off the carpet when she landed. "You're welcome to come watch it in my room if you want."

"Have fun," said Sarah absentmindedly, pouring the sugar into the dark liquid, then swirling milk in the caffeinated beverage. She went to the freezer to crack an ice tray open, grabbing two cubes to dunk into the hot coffee and depositing the plastic tray back inside. The girl walked over to the living room again, coffee grasped securely with two hands.

She turned the living room television on, flicking through the channels, watching sitcoms and occasionally changing to soap operas.

About two hours later, Aura poked her head out of her room, disk in hand, and came to find Sarah taking a nap in front of the TV. A smile flickered on the grey eyed woman's face, and went to remove the remote from the ground, turning it off and shook her head. 'She works so hard,' thought the older Moran, memories flicking to Sarah working on various client's vehicles. She shrugged, and left her sister be, going to do the laundry.

* * *

**Dream**

Brown eyes flicked open, and Sarah stood up automatically, eyes taking in the grassy field snapping to attention. "Where am I?" " **We meet again, Sarah Serena Moran,"** said a metallic tinted voice, and Sarah whirled around to find a golden plated mech standing before her, towering over the human girl. "Primus," she nodded, looking up to golden optics. "I haven't heard of you in weeks. Nearly thought you forgot about us."

" **I never forget my Chosen, Miss Moran** ," said Primus, " **I did bring you into this world, after all."** "Yeah, I have a question about that," said Sarah conversationally, crossing her arms. "When do you plan to have Aura and I start your grand plan of saving this universe from destruction?"

" **Soon, young one. Soon,"** says Primus after a moment, then he shrunk in size, becoming a human sized mech. " **My youngest Prime does not know your role. He cannot know that I brought you here, especially because I have sworn to never interfere. He hears the voices of the deceased, but even they do not have the knowledge that I have a metaphorical datapad in my subspace.** "

A second passed, and Sarah nearly blinked rapidly in succession. Did Primus just…?

" **I did,"** says the golden mech, and Sarah had the grace to look sheepish at being caught. "It's not fair you can just read my mind like that," the woman complained lightly, and Primus just gave a little laugh.

" **Of course, we are in your mind currently. It would be difficult not to, seeing as you are projecting your thoughts,"** said the god, then he became serious. " **As days pass, your sister is thinking of her purpose. Do not let her forget why I sent you here, and do not let her stray from the path I am setting for her."**

Sarah stared at the mech strangely, the first question escaping her mouth, "How will I know she is? As of now, her loyalties are with the Autobots…" Realization dawned on her face, and her expression morphed into apprehension. "Are you saying…that she will side with the Decepticons? Why would you want that to happen?! Are you insane?! All her knowledge of the movies will give them an unfair advantage-!"

" **That is enough,** " said Primus with finality, frowning, " **Your sister will help lead the Decepticons into peace with the Autobots, and that is final."**

Sarah gritted her teeth, and fear for her sister was obvious. "It will destroy her," she whispered, and Primus nodded.

" **It is the only way. As it is with Cybertron, it will be on Earth,** " said Primus, and it seemed he was starting to feel pity for the human.

"Megatron was Optimus' older brother," says Sarah, voice hollow. "History will repeat itself." She bit her lip, the expression of regret fixed on her face. "I…I need to think about this. Alone, please," she requested, and Primus nodded.

" **I give you one week to decide for sure. Farewell, Sarah Moran, and we return here in seven days."**

The grassy field melted away with the golden mech, and Sarah was left in a white space, emptiness to the left and to the right. "God help me," she said.

**End dream**

* * *

Brown eyes opened to a blue ceiling.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have college in my life now! Jeeze, the next month is going to be torture....


	7. Interlude 2: Internal Debates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah's got a lot of thinking to do, Aura's going nuts...wait, what?

Sarah sat up, groaning when her vertebra popped when she stretched her back. "Awake already?" asked an amused voice, who Sarah verified as her sister.

The younger Moran wiped sleep from her eyes, making a beeline towards the bathroom to brush her teeth and relieved herself.

"How long was I out?" asked Sarah when she got out, finding her older sister in the kitchen and Aura replied, "Nearly two and a half hours. You were mumbling something in your sleep. I wonder why."

Sarah just sighed, shaking her head, "It does not matter." She nearly flinched when she remembered what the Cybertronian god told her.

'I wonder if this is what it was like between Optimus and Megatron before the civil war,' she thought, then chased it away.

"So what do you want to do for the next eight hours?" asked Aura, picking at chipping nail polish.

"Go see a movie, perhaps," said Sarah, moving to find her laptop in the clutter of her desk in the main room. "The Brave One?"

"I heard there was something about vigilantes in it. Sure!" decided Aura, and grabbed her wallet while Sarah took the car keys. "Let's go!"

* * *

Four hours later

Aura hummed as the two sisters left the movie theater, her hands shoved into her capris pockets. "What did you think?" she asked, and Sarah shrugged. "It was alright. Not stellar."

"You say that about every movie we've seen," said Aura offhandedly, holding her hands behind her head. "I haven't seen one that's been spectacular," replied Sarah, shrugging. "Have you thought that there is much more to life then…this?"

Aura turned her head to look at her sister with surprise. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Both of us are single. You're twenty seven, I'm twenty six. It's high time we get into serious relationships," said Sarah, careful to not prod Aura too much. "But I haven't found the right person," said Aura, and the two entered their car, Aura to the wheel, Sarah to shotgun. "I've had four boyfriends already. I haven't stayed with them for more than a year. I guess I'm not compatible…with the selection. The hot guys always turn out to be asexual, gay, or already in a relationship. What about you?"

"I can't seem to find anyone either. Back in our universe, none of them were even remotely interested with Transformers," replied Sarah. "They would always ask why I wasted time looking for them instead of spending time with them. Guys can be so bossy. They expect women to do all their work for them." She dug her fingers into the black leather of her seat, the cushion popping back up when she let go.

"I'm perfectly fine being single, ya know," said Aura. "We got our cars. They don't complain, don't eat, bring us places, we know how to take care of 'em, and they don't let us down very often. Good enough for me."

"Whatever you say so," said Sarah, looking out the window. Her brown eyes flickered as she took in the people walking down the streets, idly wondering how she was going to break the news of Primus' revelations…or if she would not.

It was obvious since their parent's deaths, Aura's mind was only hanging on at a thread. It was only time till she lost it, and Sarah didn't want to think about the fallout.

She wondered if Aura even knew how much this world could hurt the both of them, and it would be difficult to just live off their parent's life insurance, their pooled together IRA, and their little business for a couple of years.

Her sister's mental instability seemed to stem from the argument Aura and their mother before Claire and Tristan Moran were lost forever.

Claire had been worried about Aura's obsession with Transformers, and the fact that both of her daughters were tomboys who had no intention of marrying or having kids any time soon. Meanwhile, Tristan was concerned that Aura would go into depression after being constantly reminded that she will never find a guy to settle down with.

Sarah could remember the argument like it was yesterday, the amount of yelling in their parent's house, Aura storming into the night, only to return three days later, with dark bags under her eyes, and wearing rumpled clothing, which were torn in some areas and slightly bruised, some scabs littering her arms. She could remember her parents go out shopping to avoid her older sibling, only to be called a few hours later with the news of the accident… Aura was never the same. Never again.

Perhaps it was that Aura blamed herself, and knew that the accident could've been prevented if the fallout never happened. The police recovered the items in their parent's car, bagged it up, and handed the items off to Aura and Sarah.

Aura looked in the bags only after their mother and father's funerals, finding clothing and little trinkets like jewelry inside. She took a white gold eighteen inch necklace with a little charm of peridot, and started wearing it. Peridot was Claire's birthstone, and Aura wore it every second of the day, only taking it off to clean it in the shower.

It was only two weeks before they rented out their parent's house did they look through the things their parents had in storage, and sold most of the furniture from the two family house. Even the clothes were sent to St. Mary's for donation, and the two opened a two week garage sale to get rid of whatever they didn't need.

It racked up a few thousand dollars, and after they finished, they just put whatever remained in storage.

Sarah's mind had been wandering so far away that she barely noticed Aura pull into the driveway, and had only been jolted out of her memories when Aura opened her car door. "You getting out?" teased Aura, a grin forming on her face. "Yeah yeah, I'm out!" grumbled Sarah, and slammed the door a bit too harshly, causing Aura to step back with a hand over her chest like she was stabbed.

"Hey! Don't hurt Solarstream like that!" she chastised her younger sister, who had the grace to look guilty. "Whoops," said Sarah, patting the door lightly. "Sorry."

Aura gave an approving look and locked the vehicle, walking up to the stoop while walking over the grass. Since Aura had the ever present 'black thumb', Sarah wouldn't be surprised if the grass withered away into nothingness after she went trampling on it without a care. If Ron Witwicky saw that…it would give the man a heart attack.

"Stop trampling over the grass like a giant squishing humans," grumbled Sarah, but Aura just retorted, "More like ah…a toddler in a city made of blocks." Sarah just rolled her eyes and entered the house with her sister, turning off the alarm before it drove the younger girl nuts.

Her eyes roamed over the living room that was attached to the foyer directly. There were about three windows in the living room, the walls painted a soft blue. The windows were covered with paper shades, ones Sarah demanded to be fitted in to let in light, and Aura left a potted plant in the corner on top of a small desk, a three person leather sofa right next to it and the coffee table sitting a few feet away.

Currently, various newspapers littered the coffee table, which Sarah started to bundle up to throw away, and Aura went back to lounging around, making a platoon of paper boats from a newspaper she snatched up before Sarah tied them all.

After Sarah dumped the bound paper in the recycle bin, she picked up some credit card bills that was left on the shoe closet, took out some receipts from the movie theater out of her pocket and went up the stairs, making an immediate right to enter her study to dump a whole cache of receipts she had to log later, plus the recent bills.

In Sarah's work room, a desk had been shoved into a corner where it was covered with papers and finance, tax return forms and other things, the papers about to fall off. A bookshelf was near it, filled with books that were mostly what was left from their parent's collection and the vast amount of books that Aura and Sarah bought on a whim as children.

Sarah left the room the moment the pile of paper hit the desk and retreated to her room just to jump on her bed and lie there. She pulled her iPhone from her pocket, opening her collection of Transformers fanart she found on the internet back before Primus brought them to this universe.

It was disappointing that she would never be able to add to her collection ever again, especially because Cybertronians were still a national security secret and all. Aura was the more artistic one of the two, and Sarah could only describe what she saw in her mind's eye for her sister to draw. Meanwhile, Sarah had a special relationship to music, which they discovered that Sarah had the ability of perfect pitch, to which she would tap out rhythms when her mind wandered.

Before she knew it, an hour had passed while she was looking through those pictures from back to back, then writing little pieces of fanfiction she would never publish.

In a split second, Sarah threw her phone at her desk, the metal back sliding over her mouse pad and hitting a piece of wood. Her mood turned to reflect her anger at what Primus was asking of her.

Aura…a Decepticon?! …Although, Primus wouldn't be far off the mark. When Transformers Animated started back in 2007 in their old world, Aura would gripe for hours about the unfairness of the Autobot Council when the mechs their showed their ugly faceplates for the first time.

During the Bayverse movies, Aura was yelling at the movie screen, and the two had to be thrown out of the theater, Aura fuming. When the movies were released on DVD, Aura bought and watched all of them, yelling at the screen anyways. It kept Sarah up at night because the walls in their shared apartment were pretty thin.

The first words that escaped Aura's mouth when it was revealed that Megatron had been kept in confinement by Sector Seven was "HOW THE PIT DID THEY CONFINE LORD MEGATRON TO **THIS**?! This is blasphemy!" Sarah had to physically restrain her sister so they still had a TV. It was not pretty.

Which brought things back to the present. Sarah brought her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around the appendages. Her forehead made a soft thud when it hit her knees, and she closed her eyes.

It was either keeping Aura and possibly making the world worse, or letting her older sister go and saving the universe. What sacrifices would have to also be made to make everything right?

There was always the chance of dying…to unite one race. But at what cost? What else did they have to lose? Would they would just be pawns in the picture of a greater power, and would lose everything they held dear?

Of course, Aura knows about the future, but…time could be rewritten. Just their presence alone would change everything, and the ripple effect would be a great unknown factor.

* * *

Meanwhile…

Aura had a dozen boats taking up space on top of the coffee table, grinning to herself triumphantly. "Alright! I'm gonna set them all on fire tomorrow morning! Bwahahahahahahahahaha!" She had been working on her evil cackle for the last couple of days, and she had to admit that it felt awe inducing to shout that.

A second later, her grin dropped, and her mind pull her into a depressed state, dropping her head in her hands.

"What the hell am I doing?" she wondered to herself, voice faintly muffled. "I haven't burnt boats for the last decade and a half! Why now?!"

She pulled out her iPod touch and scrolled through her music playlist, selecting the song 'What I've done' from the Transformers Album.

She just sat there, letting the lyrics work into her brain. "There's a lot of things I regret," said Aura quietly. "Things I can't take back…" Her mind went to the past year, then to the recent memories about her parents.

"I can't believe I was so STUPID!" she yelled at herself, her hands gripping at her hair, and she squeezed her eyes shut, hard enough for bright spots appearing behind her eyelids. "I could've prevented it…not waited three days…I could've made amends, but I didn't!"

The brown haired girl paused, listening for any signs of movement from her sister. A few seconds later, she felt like throwing something.

Aura gripped the wooden coffee table by the edges, and she flipped it over by standing up sharply, sending paper boats flying everywhere as the hard wood made a loud ' _ **thunk**_!' against the floor.

This did send Sarah running down the stairs, the brown eyed girl staring wide-eyed at her sister, panting as she easily covered thirty feet in twenty seconds. "What happened here?" asked Sarah, bewildered as she took in the sight of paper all over the place, the upturned table, Aura looking back at her with sweat on her forehead, eyes wild.

"…It was nothing," said Aura first, hands reaching up to her face to wipe away the sweat, her fingers playing with her hair. "I just…I got mad," she said lamely.

"You flipped over a table because you were mad? I thought I was Prowl here," said Sarah incredulously, the second bit weakly.

"I'll…I'll clean up," said Aura feebly, looking away from her younger sibling, and she started to pick up the paper boats.

"I was worried that someone broke in or something," said Sarah, bending over to put the coffee table upright, helping to pick up the boats.

"Nah…that was all me. I did it." Sarah noticed the hollow quality of Aura's voice, but she said nothing of it.

"I'm going to go to sleep," said Aura shortly, and she shuffled past her sister, leaving Sarah with an armful of newspaper boats, staring after her moping sibling.

"Damn." The word fell short in the empty room.


	8. The Gathering (aka New Arrivals)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New Autobots appear and Sarah revisits old memories.

Key

"You."- real world speaking

" **Are."** \- Cybertronian

_Totally.- dream_

_"Doomed," - dream talking_

_" **Sorry."- dream!Primus talking**_

* * *

September 27, 2007

11:39 PM

Chihuahuan Desert, New Mexico

It was a nice, dark night…until four giant metal pods touched down and dug deep ditches into the sand and dirt, skidding a couple of meters as they fell..

" **Everyone okay? Wow, that landing was so cool, I mean, we touched down and BWOOSH, we kicked up so much dirt and made a huge streak on the ground!"** chirped a grey protopod that transformed into an eighteen foot mech in his root form. " **I'm good, Bluestreak** ," responded another mech that transformed into root mode. " **Heya Sunny!** " grinned yet another mech, moving to embrace 'Sunny'. " **Sideswipe! Get off!** " demanded Sunny, while Bluestreak started giggling. " **Where's Prowl?"** asked Sideswipe, letting go of Sunny to exaggerate a searching pose by looking from side to side, one servo lifted to nearly cover his blue optics.

" **I think he's about three klicks over there,"** said Bluestreak, stretching cramped arms and support struts, then waving somewhere vaguely to the left. " **He missed us about a few meters."**

" **Prowlie! You're alright, aren't you?** " called out Sideswipe, running in the direction Bluestreak pointed.

" **I am functioning at optimal levels, Sideswipe. Don't call me Prowlie,** " replied a taller bot. " **Both Sunstreaker and Bluestreak made it safely?"**

" **Yeah, they're back there,"** gestured Sideswipe. " **I can't seem to find the 1** **st** **Contact team on this landmass. Looks like they're shielding their life signals.** "

Just then, black SUVs could be spotted in the distance, their high beams incredibly bright in the darkness. " **Who the frag are they?!"** clicked Sunstreaker, his astonishment blatant in his tone. " **I don't know, maybe indigenous life forms? My sensors are picking up thermal signals."**

The SUVs were followed by a flamed Peterbilt, a H2 Hummer, a black Topkick and three motorcycles. All of the vehicles transformed into their root modes, watching the four newcomers with caution.

"Well aren't you all a sight for sore optics," said the Topkick mech in English, and Prowl frowned, his CPU accessing the 'world wide web', and found their location in a place called 'The United States of America'. Further searches found a language called 'English', in a source called a 'English dictionary'. Prowl sent instructions to find such a language pack to his team, and the other three mechs downloaded it directly to their processors.

The Peterbilt briefly unshielded his EM field, and the four grey mechs straightened with alarm.

"Prime?" asked Prowl finally, recalibrating his optics once as he recognized the EM field. "Hello, old friend," said Optimus Prime warmly, and he gave a small smile.

"We received your broadcast three quartexs ago in the Gamma region," reported Prowl, "We came as fast as we could."

"Is it true? The Allspark is gone? How? Is the war still going on? Is it also true that you've befriended the natives on this planet?" fired off Bluestreak, the relentless barrage of questions flying over everyone's helm.

"We have many things to catch up on," said Optimus. "This is hardly the place for such a discussion."

"The native lifeforms on this planet are called 'humans'," said Ironhide helpfully. "We have managed to ally with the United States of America in search of any Decepticon presence on Earth." Prowl nodded, and Optimus added, "Once we get all four of you new altmodes, we will discuss what has happened in depth." "Understood, Prime," saluted the four new mechs, and they transformed into their Cybertronian altmodes, following the rest of the Autobots and their human companions.

* * *

Outer Space, a million miles away from the Solar System

" **This is Thundercracker and Skywarp reporting for duty** ," was a broadcast from a pair of mech seekers flying in space. " **Requesting new mission objectives**."

* * *

September 28, 2007 11:39 PM

Sarah lied in her bed, deep in thought. It was nearing the seventh day of her time away from any Primus forsaken (pun definitely intended) dealings of any sort. It was still weighing in her mind, how a yes or no could change time itself.

Well, it was obvious to say that, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…in this case, two people. Saving thousands were definitely more important than just two humans. They would also need to protect themselves from larger foes, and even though they both took karate and Aura learned knife throwing after seeing it in a circus, it wouldn't be enough against a species made of metal. Something had to be done. Neither girl would take death lying down.

"Primus…I'm ready," she whispered, and laid back, hair splayed out on her pillow, closing her eyes.

* * *

**Dream**

_Sarah found herself in the same grassy field she had last seen Primus, and wasn't surprised to find the golden mech in front of her. " **Have you made your decision, Miss Moran?"** rumbled the baritone voice of the god._

_"I have," said Sarah, and she looked up to the mech, and firmly nodded. "If it means that the world will continue and Cybertron has a chance to be reborn, I'm going to take it. But you need to promise me something."_

_Primus inclined his helm, a pointy audio receptor poking up. " **What is your request?"**_

_Sarah clenched her hands into fists, and said, "Aura will need a means to protect herself. She is able to fend off a bunch of people when she's gone berserk, but against a Cybertronian of Optimus' stature, or a Decepticon scout like Barricade? She won't stand a chance, and I don't want-!"_

_The god cut her off before the girl could continue any further. " **I understand."** Sarah stopped, her mouth open agape, and blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. "You do?" She didn't seem very sure of herself, and it showed when she shifted from side to side._

_" **Of course I do. I do have a brother, after all."** It took a few seconds for the human girl to realize it was Unicron that Primus was talking about. "Oh. Right. I forgot about him. Whoops," she said sheepishly, and her dream-face felt warmer with embarrassment._

_"But truthfully…if Aura does become a Decepticon, she will need to defend herself." Sarah turned her head, face and eyes hard. "I mean, I know she's way more athletic then I'll ever be, but I promised mom and dad to protect her. Doesn't matter if she's older…and I don't want her to be alone. She's dangerous if there isn't someone to ground her to reality."_

_" **I see your point, Sarah. Very well then. In the real world, I will grant Aurora Senna Moran the power to protect herself. In return, you will steer her towards the Decepticons, and Cybertron towards peace."**_

_Sarah nodded stiffly, and she looked away into the distance. "I haven't seen a field like this in a long time," she said wistfully. "I've nearly forgotten. This is peaceful, to me." In her eyes, she saw her old home with her parents, and the field changed._

_Now, the two were in her old bedroom, and Primus was sitting on the floor. " **This is your old home,"** said the god, looking around to take in the room. " **Cozy**."_

_"Er, yeah," said Sarah reaching to touch the wall. "It's been a while. I didn't even think I'd remember this place like this." Her hand rose to pat over a poster of Optimus, Prowl and Jazz in all their G1 glory, and her eyes moved to stare at their blocky forms. "This is really old. I think I was seven or something." " **Yet your mind remembers. This memory may be nineteen years old, but you remember it like it was the solar cycle before.** " Sarah looked at the golden mech, and she nodded. "Yeah. Um…do you remember…I dunno, the beginning of Time? Merging with Cybertron? Wait…how can you be here if your true form is Cybertron anyway? Seems stupid I haven't asked that sooner."_

_" **I have been projecting my conscious into your own dreams, and watching your dreams since I notice the bold statement you made in the past."**_

_Sarah immediately started blushing, her whole face turning pink with realization. "Oh my GOD," she said to herself, a hand moving up to cover her face.  
_

_A second past, and the environment changed again, now depicting a sleepover with Sarah, Aura and two other children. They all appeared to be around seven years old, and the older version of Sarah realized what she was looking at. "That's…that's me and Aura…and Brad and Clara Nathans! Transformers: Generation 2 just came out and we were binge watching them on VCR."_

_Sarah watched herself wave her hands in the air, imitating explosions and making sound effects like 'kaboom!', 'Pwoosshhh!' and 'Kablam!' all the while. Aura was rocking back and forth on the bed, laughing. "Hey! Do you wanna get all our figures together and play 'Bots vs. Cons'? You just got the newer Ramjet figure, didn't you?" Clara leaned forward, the brown haired green eyed eight year old inching forward to hold said figure._

_"Yeah, daddy got it last week. Now we got all the coneheads, and Starscream is still ta commander of the seekers!" chirped Aura. "Now we got two trines to play with! Yay!" cheered kid-Sarah._

_The older version of the same girl gave a sad smile at her past self's enthusiasm, her own expression melancholy._

_"So, I had a weird dream last night, and I wanna ask…what if you were sucked into the tv?" asked Brad, playing around with a figure of Soundwave in his hands. "Huh? Whaddya mean?" asked Aura curiously. "You know…what if the Autobots and Decepticons were real? And they found you? What would you do?" repeated Brad._

_"Uh…I dunno," shrugged Aura, then her head swiveled to look at Clara. "What bout you?" "I'd go to the Autobots and help them duh!" said Clara, rolling her eyes. "I'd be awesome! Like rock'm sock'm robots! Except in real life and waaayyyy cooler!" "I dunno about that," said Sarah, her eyebrows scrunching together and deep in thought. "I mean…wouldn't that be a bad thing?"_

_"Huh? Why?" asked Clara, frowning. "Well…the Decepticons attack people for that energon stuff. And they make problems for people. The war is really bad, Clara. I dun want it to happen." "Come on, Sarah! Where's your sense of adventure!?" protested the older girl. "But I don't get why the Decepticons have to steal instead of asking!" said Sarah._

_"Because they're evil, duh. Seriously, Sarah, the Decepticons are evil! Asking people isn't evil!" said Brad, rolling his eyes. The younger girl pouted, then turned her head away. "I dunno why they have to fight! Ain't a lot of Cybertr'nians anymore, ain't there? Nothin' left." "So whatcha gunna do then?" asked Aura, turning to her sister. "I'd save all of them! 'Cause that's what the good guys do!" declared_ _the younger Sarah._

_The memory froze, dissipating in a mist like fashion. " **Humans are fascinating creatures, Sarah. Filled with compassion and free will, much like my own children. I found human imagination to be charming and riveting. The Science fiction movies? Incredibly more creative than my descendants. Your methods of reproduction are also very curious."** Primus' tone suggested that he was very impressed. "Wait a sec...you watch sci-fi?" blurted out Sarah, her eyebrows going up with astonishment. "I didn't know gods watched human movies!...Wait...You didn't...you didn't watch porn, did you?"  
_

_Primus didn't answer, but the faint traces of pink in his cheekplates gave him away. " **...Perhaps** ," he said after a moment. __Sarah facepalmed, groaning,_ _"...You've_ got _to be kidding me." " **I do not joke on such matters. My children are created by the process of spark merging and building of a frame, or through building a frame and bringing it to the Allspark. They do not have any other processes of creating new generations."**  
_

_"That sucks big time," noted Sarah, and Primus nodded. "So...when will me or Aura going to see you next? Neither of us heard a peep about the Autobots or Decepticons, and no meteor sightings have been reported."  
_

_" **A team of four Autobots have newly arrived on Earth,"** said Primus. " **One of the member's designation is 'Prowl'."** Sarah sighed, nodding. "That's good then. Other than the First Team and the Arcee triplets, there are no other Autobots here. Are there?" " **That would be telling,** " said Primus, and Sarah rolled her eyes at the attempt at being mysterious. "Right. I might as well wake up now," she said, and closed her eyes.  
_

* * *

A pair of brown eyes opened to the raising dawn. "I must be dreaming," said Sarah to herself, and smiled, moving to get out of bed and stretch. She walked to the bathroom in the hallway to brush her teeth and relieve herself, washing her hands and returning to her bedroom to change into a pair of tan jean shorts and a t-shirt that had a Death Star with a title stating 'Owners Workshop Manual'. "AURA! Wake up! I'm going to make pancakes, and if you don't wake up and come down in a half an hour, I'll eat them all!" "I'm coming!" was the returned yell.

Sarah just walked down the stairs, a plan forming in her mind.


End file.
